1 Kings 2:4
The bow of the mighty is overcome, and the weak are girt with strength.
Open 1 Kings 2:4 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Arcus fortium superatus est, et infirmi accincti sunt robore.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- τόξον δυνατῶν ἠσθένησεν, καὶ ἀσθενοῦντες περιεζώσαντο δύναμιν·
- Hebrew (WLC)
- קֶ֥שֶׁת גִּבֹּרִ֖ים חַתִּ֑ים וְנִכְשָׁלִ֖ים אָ֥זְרוּ חָֽיִל
Haydock's commentary
Overcome. Hebrew, "broken." Septuagint, "he has weakened the bow," having deprived it of its elasticity.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Cyprian Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews, Testimony IV
In the Gospel according to John: “No one can receive anything, except it were given him from heaven.” Also in the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: “For what hast thou that thou hast not received? But if thou hast received it, why boastest thou, as if thou hadst not received it?” Also in the first of Kings: “Boast not, neither speak lofty things, and let not great speeches proceed out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge.” Also in the same place: “The bow of the mighty men has been made weak, and the weak are girt about with strength.” Of this same thing in the Maccabees: “It is just to be subjected to God, and that a mortal should not think things equal to God.” Also in the same place: “And fear not the words of a man that is a sinner, because his glory shall be filth and worms. …
St Augustine City of God, About the Prefigured Change of the Israelitic Kingdom and Priesthood, and About the Things Hannah the Mother of Samuel Prophesied, Personating the Church
Therefore the advance of the city of God, where it reached the times of the kings, yielded a figure, when, on the rejection of Saul, David first obtained the kingdom on such a footing that thenceforth his descendants should reign in the earthly Jerusalem in continual succession; for the course of affairs signified and foretold, what is not to be passed by in silence, concerning the change of things to come, what belongs to both Testaments, the Old and the New, where the priesthood and kingdom are changed by one who is a priest, and at the same time a king, new and everlasting, even Christ Jesus. For both the substitution in the ministry of God, on Eli’s rejection as priest, of Samuel, who executed at once the office of priest and judge, and the establishment of David in the kingdom, when Saul was rejected, typified this of which I speak. …